Andy Cush

I could not believe the name I read when I opened this email from Hearing Things. I completely forgot about this album. It consumed me for years. Please read this interview from Andy.

i was hoping this would reach at least a few fellow members of the Dysnomia-changed-my-life club. thanks for reading!

Dawn of Midi's Eternal Return The legendary experimental band on the making of their opus, 'Dysnomia,' and coming back to its obsessive rhythms 13 years later.

on occasion of their quiet return to live performance, I interviewed Dawn of Midi about making Dysnomia, one of my favorite records of all time, and how it feels to come back to such a monumental work now that it's no longer at the center of their lives

I wrote a little tribute to Bob Weir, through the lens of "Playing in the Band"

www.gq.com/story/bob-we...

given how fast everything is moving, i'm treating that stuff as passing / bass motion toward the chords where it eventually settles. taking a kind of macro view of what's happening harmonically. but of course all this stuff is open to multiple descriptions etc. you're def not crazy. maybe i am!

The Psychological Horror of Diana Ross' "Upside Down" A close look at the mysterious underpinnings of a disco classic.

something I've wanted to do for a while: technical writing about songs (naming chords, etc) that is legible to non-technical readers, put together with more broadly interpretive criticism in hopes of getting to a deeper understanding of what the music is doing www.hearingthings.co/the-psycholo...

glad to hear!

it's January so I finally published my longstanding crank theory about an all-time disco classic

Andy's Favorite Music of 2025 From drizzly digital grunge to jackhammering club music, lo-fi guitar explorations to glacial jazz standards, this is the music that moved me most this year.

my year end list is here :) www.hearingthings.co/andys-favori...

🫡

Chilly, rainy Sunday read: a sharp reflection on the legacy of the inimitable Fellers -- a wave like no other briefly crests before quickly breaking and rolling back.

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Strangers From the Universe Read Andy Cush’s review of the album.

here's me on Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, a band too weird for this world pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

The Guitar-Bass Hybrid That Gives Tortoise Its Lonesome Sound Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Douglas McCombs has made the cult-favorite Bass VI a staple of the post-rock legends’ palette.

A fantastic piece by @cushac.bsky.social -long live Doug and the Bass VI

www.hearingthings.co/the-guitar-b...

i'm trying to remember a line from an essay where the writer describes being a kid and lamenting that his friends who started bands took guitar-bass-drums as a given, that they didn't star glockenspiel-trumpet-cowbell bands, etc. thought it might be Lethem or Klosterman but can't find it. any ideas?

Very helpful piece by @cushac.bsky.social unpacking the problem of AI Slop

Why Is It So Easy to Flood Streaming With AI Slop? And what the hell is Operation Clown Dump?

wrote about slop www.hearingthings.co/why-is-it-so...

Asher White is so good at interviews!
www.hearingthings.co/asher-whites...

Asher White's Short, Strange Trip The young experimental pop auteur talks about her life in music so far, from her days as a tweenage noise musician, to the bad acid experience that pulled her toward songwriting, to her thrilling new ...

I had such a great time talking to the young GOAT Asher White about her brilliant new album and her days as a tweenage noise musician www.hearingthings.co/asher-whites...

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton of Los Thuthanaka Breaks Down 6 Perfectly Produced Records From Bolivian charangueada to Japanese heavy metal, these are the productions that inspire the visionary guitarist.

🚨I interviewed Joshua Chuquimia Crampton of Los Thuthanaka about Boris, Milton Nascimento, Weather Report, and the Smashing Pumpkins🚨 www.hearingthings.co/joshua-chuqu...

Zohran Mamdani can lower housing costs by getting everyone who jets between New York and the South of France to leave the city for good

The Great Instagram Jazz Guitar Plagiarism Scandal What Giacomo Turra shows us about the strange intersection of jazz and social media

there's been a scandal brewing on nerdy guitar-centric corners of YouTube for the last couple of months about a guy who got caught copying other people's guitar solos and presenting them as his own. i wrote about that bizarre saga here www.hearingthings.co/the-great-in...

including my favorite smartphone/internet-free (really!) nyc dead freak on drums. saw him DJ 2 cassette tapes of "the other one" simultaneously for a true "anthem of the sun" effect at ye olde williamsburg dead night.

thanks!

Dave McKenna Insists They Have Ham Trucks In France | Defector The topic in Defector’s internal chat on Friday was a ban, in the nation of France, on smoking in most outdoor spaces. How can the French—the French!—ban smoking? David Roth observed that “this feels…

Ham trucks in France: Are they real? defector.com/dave-mckenna...

Three Days in Prison On the road with one of America’s freakiest rock’n’roll bands.

I wrote an essay about life on the road in Prison (the band) and would be delighted if you read it www.hearingthings.co/prison-tour-...

Hearing Things Is Now 100% Worker-Owned A word from your fearless founders

Hearing Things is now 100% worker owned. it's a big, exciting step, and it means we need the support of our readers more than ever. www.hearingthings.co/hearing-thin...

I was gonna say 'Boarding Gate' but I see you beat me to it

Paul just told me he bought the 45 of the 60s novelty song “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Ha” as one of his first ever records as a kid in Louisville, sold it not long after, then as an adult saw his old copy in a shop in NYC, with his name written still on the sleeve, and bought it back

very grateful to be on the road playing rock n roll with my friends Paul Major, Doug Shaw, and Matt Lily, blasting the Stooges and Black Sabbath on late nite drives, passing the spliff around, getting stories from Paul about seeing Television in 77 and buying Led Zeppelin I at Kmart when it came out

to be clear I don’t think any independent music fan with a streaming account is a bad person or something, I had one for many years and I still host my own music on streaming, but I do want to push back against the prevailing notion that we as listeners don’t have a choice in our own participation